Why your team sucks: Only in Cleveland. ONLY in Cleveland would the new owner be a minority Steelers owner who turned out to be a fucking crook. Not only is Jimmy Haslam a crook, but his company of truck driver handjob emporiums is a whopping FOUR BILLION DOLLARS IN DEBT. Oh my fucking God! Are his truck stops built out of fucking platinum? This man isn't even an effective crook. The feds are so far up Haslam's ass that his dad might be called in to run the team. Jimmy Haslam's father, you should note, is 82 years old. You get a crook AND you get Ralph Wilson all in one!

The Browns are so colossally fucked up that they stand as a monument to more than just football incompetence. They are a living allegory of EVERYTHING WRONG WITH AMERICA. Here's Roger Goodell, who is a glorified errand boy, defending Haslam despite the fact that the feds have said Haslam knowingly defrauded other companies out of millions of dollars:

"Jimmy Haslam is a man of great integrity," Goodell said, via the Cleveland Plain Dealer. "We're proud to have him as an owner in the NFL and think he's going to be a great owner for the Cleveland Browns and their fans here. [...] We actually hold ownership to a higher standard and management. I think we've proven that in what we've done."Everything Goodell has said here, from beginning to end, is a breathtaking lie. It's amazing, really. To think that you can buy a billion-dollar football team with money that you probably don't have, and then have the commissioner of the NFL prop you up because the league can't ever admit in public that it's dealing in some seriously shady shit. Isn't that remarkable? If you know the right people, you don't even have to be rich to be rich in this country. You can just go billions of dollars into debt and then have everyone keep you afloat because they don't want to go down with you. What a complete and utter fucking disgrace. I hope Jimmy Haslam gets sent to Elkton, and I hope Roger Goodell is assigned to do cafeteria duty with him.

Nationally no one cares to watch random games but the regional aspect is driving enough money that they are still rich as hell.

IMO, baseball is the one sport that needs to be seriously worried what will happen when the Baby Boomers finally die. The average age of people watching the WS the last few years is so old it is terrifying.

Baseball has a ton of problems to deal with. For one thing, it's summer and people do shit. For another, a lot of people think it's boring. Gaps in football are filled by replays of every single play. Baseball, there's more downtime. Not to mention, football is one or two days a week for the NFL and two or three for CFB. Baseball is every single night for six months. So much burn out. Plus, it overlaps NBA/NHL and CFB/NFL/NHL/NBA. The months where baseball is the only thing on, especially when network shows have finished their seasons, people are sitting out on the patio, taking the kids for ice cream, etc. Furthermore, baseball is at night. The Browns play at 1 and you have the rest of your day and there's nothing on. Ohio State plays at noon, you have the rest of the day and there's nothing on. The Indians play at 7 and you have plans or are watching something else.

I love baseball, but I realize how vastly different it is to be at the game as opposed to watching it on TV. It doesn't stop me from watching it. Frankly, I love watching CFB because, except for who I bet on, I generally don't give a shit who wins. It's relaxing and stress-free. Not so much with the Indians.

I don't think there's anything that can be done about baseball. Too many things out of the game's control.

A God Damn dead man would understand that if a minor league bus in any city took a real sharp right turn, a Zack McCalister would likely fall out. - Lead Pipe

One thing I haven't seen mentioned on here about what keeps the NFL so popular, is video games. You have a whole generation(the younger one, not the baby boomers)of people who may or may not have ever worn shoulder pads but know the difference between a 4-3 and a 3-4 because of Madden.

I equate this to how the Baby Boomers fell in love with baseball because growing up they spent all there time on the sandlot. Well Gen Y and Gen X did not spend their youth outside, they spent it exposing themselves to football on their Nintendo's, Xbox's, and playstations.

"I don't think they're building chemical weapons in Berea. But they might be. I can't say for sure."Chuck Klosterman

The Browns play at 1 and you have the rest of your day and there's nothing on. Ohio State plays at noon, you have the rest of the day and there's nothing on.

Except all those other football games. Saturdays you can find a decent CFB game on about 8 channels all day long.

Which I addressed in a previous post. I watch CFB all Saturday long. I won't watch whatever the 4 p.m. NFL game is.

But, still, the fact remains that the NFL, and football in general, draws so well on TV largely because of fantasy football and gambling.

I once saw something somebody wrote about how Gary Bettman and the NHL should endorse gambling on hockey to increase viewership. They were thrown in the lawsuit trying to block sports betting in the state of New Jersey as a complete afterthought. They're still not really taken seriously as a major sport.

A God Damn dead man would understand that if a minor league bus in any city took a real sharp right turn, a Zack McCalister would likely fall out. - Lead Pipe

No shit. I'm no Mangini fan, but I fail to see how he made life "Hell" for that team. "They made us answer questions! And the offensive terminology was confusing! And we didn't get to stretch at our own pace!"

No shit. I'm no Mangini fan, but I fail to see how he made life "Hell" for that team. "They made us answer questions! And the offensive terminology was confusing! And we didn't get to stretch at our own pace!"

Man, it's not easy being a princess.

Did he ever consider that the spirits of the Browns team and organization were crushed because the teams sucked?

No shit. I'm no Mangini fan, but I fail to see how he made life "Hell" for that team. "They made us answer questions! And the offensive terminology was confusing! And we didn't get to stretch at our own pace!"

Man, it's not easy being a princess.

Did he ever consider that the spirits of the Browns team and organization were crushed because the teams sucked?

No shit. I'm no Mangini fan, but I fail to see how he made life "Hell" for that team. "They made us answer questions! And the offensive terminology was confusing! And we didn't get to stretch at our own pace!"

Man, it's not easy being a princess.

Did he ever consider that the spirits of the Browns team and organization were crushed because the teams sucked?

Nope, had to be the pop quizzes.

I wonder if Kokinis banged his secretary on that mahogany desk?

Hmm.... I was wondering if Holmgren and Heckert at their Taco Bell and drank their cases of Ballantine from that mahogany desk.

I guess you could use it for all sorts of important football-related things like that.

No shit. I'm no Mangini fan, but I fail to see how he made life "Hell" for that team. "They made us answer questions! And the offensive terminology was confusing! And we didn't get to stretch at our own pace!"

Man, it's not easy being a princess.

Did he ever consider that the spirits of the Browns team and organization were crushed because the teams sucked?

Nope, had to be the pop quizzes.

I wonder if Kokinis banged his secretary on that mahogany desk?

Hmm.... I was wondering if Holmgren and Heckert at their Taco Bell and drank their cases of Ballantine from that mahogany desk.

I guess you could use it for all sorts of important football-related things like that.

Nah, they had a new desk brought in, because with each new regime everything has to be new because it's a new day with the new Browns. Only the results are old.

Mangini probably has the old mahogany desk stuffed into his ESPN cubicle.